31 July 2006
alibuhod
My cousin showed me these pictures not too long ago and I was stunned by how the clothes look hautely exquisite and that Filipino designers are behind these finely-made garments.
Ria in Bo Parcon.
In Ignacio Loyola.
Another Ignacio Loyola creation.
Shot on the tranquil beaches of Guimaras, in the Visayas region of the Philippines, model-of-the-moment Ria Bolivar effortlessly wades through water and scales rocks while at the same time looking stunning. Bridal never looked this magnificent!
Backstage at Don Protasio.
Ria, the current go-to girl for runway and print alike, is not only statuesque and blessed with enviable bone structure and long limbs, but is also known for her altruism and cool sense of style. A New York agency should sign this girl right away!
30 July 2006
lump sum
I haven't updated in a while, so here you go!
Last week has been the busiest week so far! I'm done with my RN requirements! Well, almost. I've completed the background check, gotten the titers, a chest x-ray and a physical out of the way, bought malpractice insurance, and bought uniforms, patches, and my name tag. Now, I need to submit my Basic Life Support recertification, buy a lab kit, buy another patch, and buy the eight required textbooks. It was also nice seeing friends who were done with their summer school finals and spending time with them.
After about a week of intense, sweltering heat, it's good to have cooler weather for a change. And those power outages! Vile, vile! Thank goodness we had electricity all the time.
Karma's a b*tch. Karma's bite is a b*tch. Karma hit early! I feel bad for the people it's affected, but I guess that's how it works.
For the past two nights, I've been overeating like a nourishment-deprived street urchin. Why?! I can't explain it. It must have something to do with me being overwhelmed at the food choices this world has to offer. Last night, I found it immensely difficult to walk after eating two cups of french onion soup, half of a small french bread with butter, chips and bread with spinach dip, chicken pot pie, a little bit of cheesecake, a little bit of triple chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, and four glasses of decaffeinated raspberry iced tea. Everything courtesy of Mimi's Cafe. Glutton, much?! That night, I contemplated going bulimic. Right now, food just doesn't appeal to me.
Another thing! Why was Allison Holker booted from So You Think You Can Dance?! It should've been her and Benji Schwimmer on the top two! No! No! No!
Last look. Season one's pinoys!
25 July 2006
linda? is that you?
Is it just me or does Linda Vojtova (1) look at least ten pounds lighter? Look at those limbs! She's a total rail now compared to her fuller, curvier body two years ago. Also, she's gone back to dark blonde after a short stint as a redhead and as a honey blonde. Linda nabbed this cover of Vogue Hellas with the title "So Sexy!", wearing an intricate, uncomfortable-looking gold "swimsuit". In recent seasons, Miss Vojtova picked up a few shows here and there, did a Giorgio Armani and La Perla campaign, among others. I've always thought of her as a weirder Gisele Bündchen (IMG), but in a good way. I'm kind of on the fence about this cover, but maybe the Greeks think it's sexy, and they have the last word since it is Vogue Hellas after all.
24 July 2006
aprendí que. . .
Siempre van a estar personas que no van a entender. Estarán personas que a ti no te gustan y por consiguiente, ellas te chocan. Cuando uno está lleno de confusión, es importante dejar las cosas pendientes, continuar a vivir tu propia vida y dar prioridad a tu propia felicidad. Sé que las cosas se van a arreglar y tengo muchas oportunidades y experiencias que voy a disfrutar. Uno no debe gastar tiempo pensando en lo que podría haber sucedido. Me urge pasarme bien el verano, por lo tanto llenaré esta semana con muchas actividades. Espero que mi prima nos vaya a visitar antes el año escolar comienza.
¡Que todos tengan un verano fantástico!
23 July 2006
et voilà vodianova
Natalia Vodianova (DNA) appears on the cover of the August 2006 issue of W and looks smashingly svelte post-pregnancy with a brand new auburn bob that Anna Wintour would surely be proud of. What is it with these model moms, Angela Lindvall (1), Carolyn Murphy (IMG), and Liya Kebede (IMG) included, who pop one out, walk a few shows and pose for campaigns soon after?
Witness the rest of her lurid editorials in paper form!
Miss Vodianova has also landed the cover of the August 2006 issue of Vogue Nippon. I'm really digging her new look. When I saw this pink Chloé dress on Querelle Jansen (IMG) on the Fall 2006 runway, I was very unconvinced, but I guess it just takes a different girl to wear it and different styling to turn it into a very desirable piece. The egg shape is in!
22 July 2006
bella italiana
Mariacarla Boscono (Women) highlights the August 2006 issue of Vogue China, looking very elegant and poised (as opposed to the time she accidentally whacked makeup artist extraordinaire Pat McGrath with a parasol). Personally, I’m not a fan of the bottled blonde crop, but it's growing on me. After all, its strong influence was felt in the four or five other Mariacarlettes on Dior’s fall/winter 2006 haute couture runway.
Maybe it's the post-World Cup victory exhilaration that generated such an issue majorly devoted to all things Italian: style, sound, icons, beauty, art, and plenty more.
Hey, they could've done it on Chinese culture and Du Juan (IMG) as the cover but perhaps they're postponing that for Beijing 2008.
21 July 2006
haters (and ungulates) are gonna hate
Look! It's an evil tamaraw!
There are always going to be people who, drowned in their own insecurities, are quick to put others down in order to bring themselves up. These people are ugly and pathetic. It doesn't help their cause when they are physically ugly. It gets worse when they're full of themselves and think they're hot sh*t. I could post the ugliest picture I've found of the main person I’m talking about, but I’m going to take the high road and let karma take care of her.
When you've been nothing but genuinely nice to everyone and you've worked honestly and put everyone's best interests first, it sucks majorly when people pretend like they've totally figured you out and everything you've done for them is twisted and turned against you.
Jealousy. I think it all comes down to jealousy. They’re jealous that we're doing a lot better than them academically and socially and we're actually doing something with our lives other than hanging out. They’re jealous that we look better than them. Well, I guess more on my friends' part. Haha. Seriously, they think they stand taller and score with the hottest people. It’s not our fault that you've been here five years and you speak like you came through customs last night! And please, was it really necessary to pack your ugaling bundok in your straw bags and bring them over here in America? That’s for saying that my friends and I are whitewashed!
Bunch'a butt-kissing users.
20 July 2006
danish delight
That short blonde crop has certainly caught on. Mariacarla Boscono (Women) initiated it in modeling's recent times and here with a different, albeit faux take is Freja Beha (IMG) on the cover of Numéro's August 2006 issue.
19 July 2006
sprechen sie deutsch?
Its covergirls include Trump's Lisa Cant, Next's Solange Wilvert, and IMG's Sasha Pivovarova and Sessilee Lopez. A refreshing style and culture magazine straight from Deutschland, Deutsch could very well be on the rise to become a German fashion guide fixture.
17 July 2006
everlastingly wedded
please don't hurt me, i'm just a meek little monchhichi.
anger and projection. definitely not a hollywood marriage. inseparable. indivisible. superglued forever. they go hand in hand, almost everytime.
last week, i've encountered a lot of people and situations wherein anger is rooted.
please excuse the plural pronouns "they" and "their"!
there's a friend who was deriding me. i was like this shiny new round wire nail straight off the shelf from home depot, but due to an emergency refurbishing job, i was (very unfortunately) used. it was adding insult to injury when they drove me down farther than i should go. i know the person well. their self-hate was projected towards me.
this one person has been down all week. everyday, anger spewed at whoever was nearest them or whoever was being talked about at the moment. enough said.
another friend decided to tell me about a particular mutual friend and their anger concerning that person. i was very straightforward and honest in my response, clearly illustrating a similar situation wherein things got worse because of pent up feelings and snowballing misunderstandings, at the same time offering help since the three of us are friends. i was met with cold indifference. i know that that person has plenty of anger at life, and i suspect that once again, they're unjustly projecting it on one person.
of course, i can't leave myself out. i have had longstanding and ongoing anger at promiscuity and promiscuous inviduals. people who seem like they haven't learned their lesson. people who need to have large, dark words written on fifteen feet of butcher paper about what has happened in the past. people who need another STD to remind them about the previous one. people who are asking for an STD because they've never had one before. yes, me and the P word just don't mesh.
also, i'm angry at the realization that for the next two years, i will be pagekill.
pagekill [pāj kĭl]
n.
1. insects and other minute fauna that are trapped and instantaneously die between the pages of a book, magazine, or any other reading material.
2. someone who is (sometimes forcibly) immersed in textbooks about pharmacology, gerontics, and other related subjects for the pursuit of a passing grade, making it to the fourth semester, being present at the pinning ceremony, and the ultimate, getting that paycheck.
consequently, i will have to say goodbye to a decent social life. good luck to me.
the smart and humane thing to do is never to project anger towards anyone else. channel that anger to do something positive. make a patchwork quilt. clean your neighborhood's gutters. feed the homeless in skid row. or in my case, trying to stay as light (skin color-wise) as possible during this summer.
16 July 2006
stambivalent
i love the contrast of these pictures.
above, IMG's jessica stam in BCBG max azria's spring/summer 2006 campaign, looking ever so angelic and ethereal. the clothes reek of overstyled it girls, but what i'm mesmerized at is how jessica managed to channel heather marks on the left photo and querelle jansen on the right.
below, jessica appearing in i-D's horror issue all donned in drab-fab marc by marc jacobs and a black wig. it may be more modern-day wednesday addams than regan macneil, but it certainly works!
14 July 2006
cette robe noire
in superman returns, lois lane (played by kate bosworth) wears a black dress with a sliver of saffron in the slit. described as "art deco thirties" by costume designer louise mingenbach, the dress, along with the katharine hepburn hair, is pure brilliance. the picture doesn't do it justice! apologies for not being able to find a better picture.
speaking of kate, i'm wondering if she's stuck to stylist jessica paster or moved on to rachel zoe. shudder, shudder. i must say it's better to be pasterized than to be zoed.
and speaking of rachel zoe, i was channel surfing last night and i came across last call with carson daly. what has he done to himself? post-TRL he looks like he's walked the whole course of the tour de france (maybe that's good) and his skin has taken on the color of terra cotta, a little bit like rachel zoe's. wait, ms zoe's is more like a yellow ochre color. yea, definitely yellow ochre.
oops, did i just say that?
12 July 2006
it's going to be different from now on
i recently lost my uncle to a myocardial infarction, a heart attack. along with my sister, we fondly called him "daddy". growing up, i was very close to his family. i always spent time with my three cousins and i considered him and my aunt (my mom's older sister) as my second parents.
it's hard trying to digest what has happened. seeing pictures just squashes one's initial disbelief. about a year and four months ago, his whole family came over from the philippines. i miss those days.
i worry about everyone he has touched and everyone who has been a part of his life. i know that especially for his immediate family, it's going to be difficult to carry on. this is another loss that they have to endure.
it reminds me that someday, we all have to go. 
someday, it will be our time too. to those who we love and to those who we care for, don't leave words unspoken and actions unaccomplished.
R.I.P. reynold t. donesa
november 2, 1954 - july 9, 2006
it's odd how i just finished wolf boy by evan kuhlman, a fresh and brilliant convergence of both novel and comic book. it tells the story of middle child stephen and his family's loss of the eldest child, francis. his mom, dad, little sister and francis' fiancée all cope in their own unique ways, but it is stephen who channels his grief into something creative: he and his girlfriend nicole create the comic book wolf boy.
ironic. so many things have been weird. "signs" my cousin calls them.
it's difficult to let go.
it really is.
08 July 2006
mass market, here they come
IMG's power models have transcended the routine editorial pages. they're trading (at least for now) couture for commercial.
jessica stam (left), the canadian revolt against the rail model, rocks brunette, redhead, and (currently) blonde, and is part and parcel of the porcelain doll look explosion. du juan, the shanghai dance school alumni, holds her own in an industry lacking models of color, and adds this gap gig to her impressive fall/winter campaign bag.
i've gotten over dovile virsilaite's signature lip idiosyncrasy. the editorials she does just blow me away. her old navy ad even reeks of editorial composure! ah, that lithuanian litheness.
also on the commercial radar is marilyn's cintia dicker, doing both print and tv ads for l'oréal vive pro, rocking that beautiful copper mane. elite's emina cunmulaj looks stunning in the john frieda tv commercials. she's the brilliant brunette, of course.
transported from chloé's and anne valérie hash's runways to freeway billboards and store fronts, will the commercial market demand more of the classically high fashion girls?
07 July 2006
assorted oddities
can't wait to try one of these. haha. all kidding aside, it looks like it tastes good. it's supposedly available at vons and at various hispanic supermarkets. they'll make perfect stocking stuffers! just kidding.
i heard a discussion about this in on air with ryan seacrest. i really wouldn't mind owning a bottle of that stuff. imagine getting that in your eye, though. ouch.
oh, and the so-called bullsh*t deflectors. so stylish. click on the link and download the .pdf file(s) of your liking.
pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest wasn't all that great. it felt like two and a half hours. geez. but it was fun to hang with bobby, josh, and karina again!
something un-stupid. soon. seriously.
05 July 2006
pinay ka, sigaw na, sige
i didn't know ford's charo ronquillo walked for lacoste and nanette lepore during fall 2006 olympus fashion week. interesting, interesting.
did everyone have a good fourth of july?
i went shopping at american apparel and had dinner with the family. it was so-so.
i'll post something worth reading soon. i promise!
02 July 2006
darn taggers!
last week, i was passing through downtown LA. to my dismay, i saw graffiti on the murals on the 101 freeway between the olvera street exit and the cathedral of our lady of the angels. very saddening. the murals were restored not too long ago and now they're vandalized again. tagging. cleaning up. tagging. cleaning up. it's a vexing cycle that's a lot more painful for the cleaners than for the taggers. it's upsetting to see LA's already marred environs further worsened. the trashed murals i saw include:
going to the olympics by frank romero
this mural, with cars painted in bold and broad strokes can be found between alameda and san pedro streets. now, with all the graffiti, the cars are almost indistinguishable from the background. they've been covered in metallic spraypaint.
buckle up by steve rose
a friendly reminder to all drivers, this mural at spring street has been tainted again.
galileo, jupiter, apollo by john wehrle
also on spring street, vandalism has taken its (unwelcome) place amongst the floating sculptures and planets in this mural.
LA freeway kids by glenna boltuch avila
located near the los angeles street exit, this mural features a group of kids skipping, running, and being active. this is an old picture of the mural. back then, the vandals tried to spare the children and work their way around them. i've always made fun of the asphyxiated color of the last child on the right after its restoration, but now if you drive through the 101 and see the mural, all the children look bad.
darn taggers!
for more information about los angeles murals, visit mural conservancy of los angeles and public art in los angeles. visit no graffiti to join the fight against tagging.
01 July 2006
super da vinci chronicles
fascinatingly enough, the last three movies i've seen have had themes about jesus christ.
starting with superman returns, the biblical reference is apparent when jor-el says, "they can be a great people. . . they only lack the light to show the way. for this reason above all their capacity for good, i've sent them you, my only son." so there you go, superman the christ figure.
of course, the whole issue in the da vinci code is jesus' divinity/mortality and his enduring lineage in the character sophie neveu, played by the magnificent audrey tautou.
lastly, the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe is a play-by-play of biblical symbols, from allusions to "sons of adam" and "daughters of eve" to the lion aslan's sacrifice, resurrection, and imminent second coming. evidently, aslan is the embodiment of jesus in this film.
in contrast, i also saw the omen on its opening day. the devil spawn damien is played by the eerily, creepily, frighteningly evil-looking child actor seamus davey-fitzpatrick. i can't think of any other recent movies that talk about the devil, except maybe the devil wears prada, but we know anna wintour's not too happy about that comparison.
one last thing. here's one of my (many) favorite songs by sufjan stevens, perfect for the rekindled supermania:
sufjan stevens - the man of metropolis steals our hearts (mp3)